


Acting Like A Baby

by Notmarysue



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Babies, Babysitting, Fluff, Kid Fic, M/M, Toddlers, baby Virgil
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-20
Updated: 2019-09-20
Packaged: 2020-10-24 20:56:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,246
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20712413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Notmarysue/pseuds/Notmarysue
Summary: When something causes Virgil to regress into a baby, Patton goes to figure out what's going on. leaving Logan to care for his young friend.





	Acting Like A Baby

Logan sometimes wondered what a ‘normal day’ would look like, because there was no such thing as a normal day for a side. Their world wasn’t the same as the human world. Instead, it was in constant flux, changing drastically moment by moment as Thomas attempted to navigate his life. This was why Logan didn’t try to focus on having normal day. It was much less frustrating to try to maintain uneventful days. Days where Thomas didn’t have an existential crisis and feel the need to summon them all. Days where no dark sides appeared, and no light sides disappeared. Days where he experienced there was something close to, but in way no identical to, peace. There had been precisely 20 peaceful days in a row, a significant gap in active, so he knew something had to be coming soon. When he woke up to unnatural silence, he was no way surprised.

“Hello? Is anyone awake?” He wandered through the corridors of the mind palace barely awake. His top button was undone, and his tie had been abandoned on his bedroom floor. He’d take a brief second to brush his hair and teeth, but he hadn’t paid much attention to the former. He was far too focused on figuring out why everything was so quiet.

“Patton? Roman? Virgil?” He shouted. “…Deceit?” No reply came. His heartbeat began to quicken. As much as he wanted Thomas to be guided by Logic, he had no desire to led him all alone.

“Anybody?” His voice echoed against the walls. A brief moment later a door flew open and Roman stepped out, drowsy and in little more than his boxers.

“What are you shouting about?” Roman grumbled.

“Roman, thank goodness I…wait…have you just woken up?” Asked Logan.

“Yes. You woke me up.” Roman snapped.

“Why aren’t you out helping Thomas…um…create?”

“There’s no point.” He grumbled. “Thomas doesn’t seem to be in the mood for my help.”

“Oh nonsense. Thomas loses motivation all the time. We’ve done videos about it. He still needs your help.”

“Yes, but normally he at the very least wants to work. He normally has desires and dreams buried underneath all that…him. But I tried to inspire him last night and he was just…distracted. The same again this morning. So, I just went back to bed.”

“Distracted? How so?” 

“I don’t know. Pacing. Tapping. General distancing from…everything.”

“Sounds like the classic signs of nervous energy. This may call for intervention. You get dressed. I’ll get Patton and Virgil.”

“Good idea. No doubt the Prince of Darkness will have plenty to say on the matter.” Roman grumbled.

“You consider Virgil to share your royal status?” Asked Logan.

“I’ll talk to you later, Teach.” Roman replied as he closed and locked his bedroom door.

“Oh…well alright then.” Said Logan. The next port of call was Patton’s room. He knocked on the door and waited for an answer. Nothing. He knew he was in there; he could hear movement. He knocked again and hoped for the best. 

“Just a minute.” Patton called. After a few more moments of shuffling the door opened. Patton looked a mess. His cardigan was missing, his shirt was covered in white stains. His hair was sticking up in all directions and the black bags under his eyes could almost match Virgil’s favourite eye shadow. He leaned against the wall, desperate not to fall asleep, as he struggled to look Logan in the eye.

“Good morning, dear.” Patton tried to smile, but he was so exhausted that it came out wonky.

“Good morning. Are you okay?”

“Me? I’m fine. Hey urr can I ask you something?” Asked Patton.

“Of course.”

“H-how do you feel about kids?”

“I’m…sorry?”

“More specifically very small children. Even more specifically babies.”

“Oh…I’m…not sure. Isn’t it a little early in our relationship for a conversation such as this? We’ve only been together for a couple of months.” Logan replied cautiously.

“Well, you know, it’s never too early to start dis-discussing what we um…what we want in l-“ His words were interrupted by a series of small thuds, followed by one large bang and the sound of an infant crying.

“What’s that sound?”

“Um…a baby.” Patton smiled sheepishly. Logan barged into the room to find it in total disarray. It seemed that nothing was in its proper place, though he wasn’t sure if that was because an actual problem or Patton’s general lack of organisation. Across the room the floor was littered with Thomas’ old notebooks that had clearly fallen from the top of a white set of draws. Next to the draws and in the middle of the fallen notebooks sat a sobbing infant boy, barely 18 months old. Though he couldn’t tell for sure, the little black bat onesie gave Logan a good idea of who the child was.

“Is that-“

“Virgil.” Patton nodded wearily as he headed over to pick the toddler up. “Hush now little one.” Patton swooped little Virgil up and held him close to his shoulder, rocking gently back and forth. It didn’t take long for the crying to stop. “This is the only thing that’ll calm him down. He doesn’t sleep. He keeps toddling about and as soon as he falls or knocks something over it’s tears.”

“Does he recognise us?”

“I’m not sure.” He sighed as he sat on the edge of his bed. “He doesn’t seem to be showing any stranger anxiety so he’s at least familiar with us.” 

“What happened? How did he end up like this?”

“I don’t know. Last night noticed that Thomas was a little more anxious than normal and I couldn’t work out what was going on, so I decided to talk to Virgil. I tried knocking but he wouldn’t answer, but the door wasn’t locked so I went in. He was like this when I went in, crawling around the door and babbling away. I couldn’t leave him there, so I decided to bring him back here until he turned back on his own.” Patton explained.

“I doubt it’s going to be that simple.” Logan sighed.

“But how did this happen?”

“Well, if I had to guess I’d say this was a case of regression.” 

“Regression?”

“Regression.” Logan nodded. “When someone is more emotional than normal what do people say about them?”

“They say they’re acting like a baby.” Said Patton. “Which I always found very unfair. Just because a person’s emotions seem extreme doesn’t make them less valid.”

“Ek.” Said Virgil in way Patton and Logan took as agreement.

“Nevertheless, we all adjust to Thomas’ emotional state, Virgil in particular, so if Thomas is feeling particular vulnerable it could make sense for the side representative of his deepest fears would regress to their most vulnerable state.” Logan explained. “Hence-“

“Baby Virgil.” Patton cooed as he bounced Virgil up and down on his knee.

“Precisely.” Logan nodded. “Hopefully, a little support will calm Thomas down and Virgil will return to normal. This calls for-“

“Morality on the case.” Patton grinned as he jumped up and handed Virgil to Logan.

“Oh, no I-“

“Now I know you want to go on and use logic on the problem, but if this is an emotional problem it’s emotional support he’ll need, and that’s my job.” Patton explained.

“Yes, but-“

“You stay here and look after Virgil. I’ll be back soon.” Before Logan could get another word in Patton had ducked out and Logan was left holding Virgil at arm’s length. Virgil reached at the empty space where Patton had been standing and started to whimper.

“Oh…um.” Logan scanned around for something to take Virgil’s mind off Patton. He hated the thought of him crying, as a baby or otherwise. He racked his brain for an idea as Virgil pushed closer to tears by the second. There had be something. Patton’s room was packed with everything from Thomas’ childhood. Theoretically his baby toys would be in there somewhere. He routed around the nearby draws and found a colourful ring of fake plastic keys. It wasn’t perfect, but it was a start. He placed Virgil on the floor and handed him the toy. “Look. Keys.”

“Eee.” Virgil squealed in delight as he started to fiddle with the keys. Logan sighed with relief. That would buy him a few minutes. For the next hour and a half, the floor became filled with toys of all shapes and sizes. Building blocks, a colourful ball, a four-part animal puzzle that Virgil found surprisingly challenging. He seemed quite pleased with it all. In fact, Logan couldn’t recall the last time he’d seen Virgil so enthusiastic. Eventually though, his stomach began to rumble and no amount of toys could distract him from the discomfort.

Logan routed around for a highchair, which he found lodged behind piles of stuffed toys. It was a soft baby blue with a shiny clean white chair. He set it up and safely secured Virgil in the seat before dashing to hunt the kitchen for some baby appropriate food. All he could find was a jar of blueberry crofters. 

“It’ll do.” Logan muttered before grabbing a teaspoon and running back to Virgil.

“Eh?” Asked Virgil, pointing at the opened jar and open that had been placed in front of him.

“I know it’s not the greatest meal but I’m sure it’ll taste good.”

“Mmm.” Virgil grumbled as he struggled pick up the spoon. He gripped the spoon at an angle, causing the jam to slowly begin to slide the handle.

“Go on. Put it your mouth. It’s yummy. Look.” Logan gently took the spoon and took an exaggerated mouthful. “Mmm, really good, see?” He said as he refilled the spoon and tried to hand it back. Virgil pressed one of his little hands on the handle, accidentally flicking the sticky blueberry jam in Logan’s face. Virgil’s laughter filled the room as Logan wiped the jam off with his hand. “I’m going to remind you about this.”

Letting Virgil feed himself clearly wasn’t going to work out. Instead, Logan decided it was better if he fed him. It took a while but eventually they got through a good percentage of the jar.

“Alright, just one more spoonful for Logan. Here it comes.” Logan waved the spoon around making aeroplane noises before reaching Virgil’s mouth. Virgil swallowed and clapped. Train noises made everything easier. Virgil yawned and rubbed his eyes. Almost immediately he began to drift off. “Yes, I think it’s about naptime too.” Said Logan as he lifted Virgil out of the highchair. Logan sat down on the bed and held Virgil against his shoulder. Virgil dozed off with his thumb in his mouth, more peaceful than Logan had ever seen him.

“To sleep, and goodnight. Good to sleep, baby Virgil.” Logan yawned as his own eyelids grew heavy. He sunk down onto the bed, melting into the pillows as he held Virgil close.  
The next thing he knew he was being gently shook by the shoulder. He opened his eyes and looked up to Patton by the bed, smiling and trying to wake him, and Virgil, now back to his normal self, still fast asleep besides him.

“Hey sweetie, how did it go?” Patton asked softly.

“Pretty well.” Logan replied drowsily. “How’s Thomas?”

“Oh, he’s fine. Just overwhelmed. He’s at a lot of work to do and all this self-discovery, it was all just a little stressful for him. He feels better now.” Patton explained.

“Hmm.” Virgil grumbled as woke up. It took him a few seconds to register that he wasn’t in the right place and pushed himself up into a sitting position. “What’s going on? You guys look a mess.”

“Well, thank you, Virgil.” Logan rolled his eyes as he sat up himself. 

“Why are all these baby toys out?” Virgil asked.

“Don’t you remember?” Asked Patton.

“No. Why? Did I do something stupid?” 

“No. You just…urr…bumped your head is all. You passed out and me and Patton looked after you. And the toys are out because Patton never cleans his room.” Logan explained.

“That’s fair.” Patton mumbled.

“Oh…sorry if I caused any trouble.” Said Virgil.

“Don’t be silly. You’re no trouble at all.” Said Logan.

“Thanks for looking after me. I’m gonna go back to my room. I’ll see you guys, later.”

“Sure thing, kiddo.” Patton smiled as Virgil left. “I think I’m going to a nap. I’ve been awake for well over 24 hours.”

“Okay. I’ll leave you to it.” Said Logan as he got up. As he reached the door a thought sat heavy in his mind. It felt stupid, but he couldn’t help but think that he enjoyed his time with baby Virgil. All that love, all that joy. It had uncovered a type of feeling he didn’t know that he had within them. He sighed and looked back at Patton. “Um…Patton, about what you said early, about what I thought about children.”

“Yes?” Asked Patton.

“Would that be something you wanted…for the two of us?” 

“Oh…well maybe one day. Not yet. I think we still have a lot to work on with Thomas before that, and on ourselves too.”

“Of course, you’re right.” Logan nodded.

“But Logan.”

“Yes?”

“When that day comes, you’re going to make a great father.” Patton smiled.

“Sleep well, dear.” Logan smiled as he left the room, leaving Patton to sleep in peace.


End file.
